Rocketeers is a journal documenting my interest in commercial spaceflight ("NewSpace"), particularly in the growing number of British firms involved in this fascinating area of technology. I also hope to present some of my own efforts to promote spaceflight and public interest in space in the UK.

The CranSEDS Space Policy Day invites you to join a discussion to assess the progression of space-related law since the dawn of the Space Age and its impacts on countries and companies. Speakers from the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) and London Institute of Space Policy and Law (ISPL) will provide an insight into the background and current state of space policy, and industry speakers will describe the impacts on their respective companies. Following these sessions, attendees are encouraged to participate in workshops, in which current space policy issues raised in the talks will be discussed, and potential measures and solutions brainstormed. These will then be presented to the whole group.

A UK space company has won a contract to design and to prototype a landing sensor for an unmanned mission to the south polar region of the Moon, the first in a series of launches that could see the first human habitat on the Moon.

Neptec UK has been awarded the contract by Airbus Defence and Space (based in Bremen) for the design of a “radar laser” or LIDAR known as LEIA (LiDAR Extra-terrestrial Imaging Applications) that forms a critical part of the autonomous landing navigation system called PILOT.

Scheduled to launch in 2021, the “Luna Resource-1 Lander” mission is being undertaken by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA provides the PILOT system for precision and safe landing and the PROSPECT surface package for searching for water that could eventually be used to make fuel and oxygen to support future manned lunar missions.

Neptec UK’s sensor is being developed by a team of engineers at its offices and laboratory at Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire. It is intended that the LIDAR will map the surface of the moon during the lander’s descent in order to find a suitable safe landing area for the vehicle.
Sue Horne, Head of Space Exploration, UK Space Agency, says: “It is great to see such exciting projects coming out of the UK’s investment in exploration.”

Mike Kearns, Managing Director, Neptec UK, says: “We are extremely proud to be part of this exciting mission that will help establish the Moon as a launch site for human exploration into deeper space. The LIDAR technology that is being developed for this mission also has significant potential for terrestrial use in helping to guide autonomous mobile platforms. Vehicle autonomy is an exciting growth industry around the world and LIDAR technology plays a key role in its development.”

Kerry Sanz, Programme Manager, Neptec UK, continues: “Ninety per cent of the LIDAR design and prototyping work on this phase of the project will be done by UK based companies and everyone involved is very enthusiastic to be part of this historic mission.

A subsidiary of Neptec Design Group, Neptec UK was incorporated in 2013 and established its base of operations in Harwell, Oxfordshire. The company’s primary customers are ESA and the UK Space Agency.

A UK company has reached the landmark of delivering the first imaging components of an ESA mission to investigate dark matter and dark energy.

The firm e2v in Chelmsford, has developed a new Charge Coupled Device (CCD) imaging sensor for the space telescope and the first four have now been delivered to the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), in Surrey. The remaining CCDs for the Visible imager (VIS), will be delivered over the coming months.

Several dozen photos, spaceport brochures, notes from livetweeting, UKSA literature and a copy of the draft Spaceflight Act. A lot of material to study and digest! Coverage of an exciting, optimistic and thought-provoking day at the LaunchUK event coming soon...

"Tokamak Energy is a private company building compact spherical tokamaks for nuclear fusion power generation. Critical to the success of these devices is the development of high field and temperature superconducting magnets made from commercial rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) coated conductors. Fusion is an emerging market for these conductors, and improvements in their properties and manufacturing processes could drastically improve the performance and economics of future reactors. Factors such as critical current density in high magnetic fields, tape construction, resilience against neutron irradiation, and the speed and economy of manufacturing processes, may all be customised for this novel application. The aim of this project will be to explore new ways in which REBCO coated conductors can be optimised for use in spherical tokamaks, in order to accelerate the generation of commercial nuclear fusion reactors."

The former Manston airport site in Kent will be pitched to the UK Space Agency later this month as a potential launchpad, it has emerged. Campaigners working to get planes flying again in Thanet have secured the meeting with space chiefs at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on February 21. Bosses will hear a ten-minute presentation from the campaigners, who will champion the benefits of using Manston for launching spacecraft.

Rocketeer comments: Though possibly not a Soyuz-MS launch site, as the photo accompanying the article would seem to suggest. Might cause those living in Belgium and northern France a certain degree of alarm...